To understand quantum mechanics
is to understand that
there is a central mystery in physics.

Physics generally, and quantum mechanics in
particular, is so odd that it screams
philosophy. "Counter-intuitive" is the usual
description of the laboratory results, which means
that the world behaves in ways that we would not
expect, and that, frankly, don't make sense.
Confronted with real results that appear to
contradict our assumptions, we are burdened with
the task of reevaluating our assumptions.
That is philosophy, is it not?

These pages attempt, first, to
report the laboratory results. Nevermind
that they don't make any intuitive sense.
Those are the results. You should know how
nature behaves. Second, we attempt to make
sense of the results -- cavalierly disregarding
the advice of many a learned sage counseling that
we would do better just to forget about it.
The focus is on information, as has been
recommended by many physicists. The
conclusion here is that the universe is both
information and information processing. The
universe is the manifestation of a computer and
its programming.

If the universe is a computer running
along conventional programming lines, then who are
we? And who programmed this virtual reality
simulation? And why? That is
philosophy, certainly. And it is
religion. And it is still science.

Featured
Articles
Resources

The Reality Program[No
Frames version]
A primer on looking at quantum physics from the
cybernetic point of view. This is for liberal arts
majors. Mostly concepts, no technical jargon, good
illustrations.

"In more
than 30 years of reading about quantum
mechanics,
your presentation is the most lucid I have yet found."

Further discussion on the topic "Is the universe a
simulation?" With Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Lisa Randall,
James Gates, Max Tegmark, David Chalmers, Zohreh Davoudi

2011
Asimov Memorial Debate
[at 1:02:26]Neil deGrasse Tyson: So you're
saying as you dig deeper, you find computer code writ in
the fabric of the cosmos. James Gates: Into the equations that we want to
use to describe the cosmos, yes.
Pertinent
transcript excerpts here.

Technical
Papers of Interest.
For those of you from Missouri -- "show me."
Although the BottomLayer has been designed for the
generalist, many of you have been interested enough to
feel an urge to go to the data. I commend the
impulse, and so I will be posting papers that have
struck my fancy.

Book Review:Rocks of AgesStephen Jay Gould (MHRIP) More than a book
review, this essay reveals the impulse. It is really
a sermon and a testimony.

Video Presentation of Double Slit
Experiments
The legendary Trinity lecture on the double slit
experiment, now formatted for streaming video.
Targeted for lay audiences, this presentation begins
with simple wave mechanics and simple particle
mechanics, then proceeds to demonstrate the laboratory
results obtained when quantum units traverse a barrier
with two slits. "[The double slit experiment] has
in it the heart of quantum mechanics. In reality,
it contains the only mystery." - R.P. Feynman.

A Cybernetic
Interpretation of Quantum MechanicsHTML
Frames - or - HTML No Frames -or-
PDF FileEvidence and arguments for the
proposition that our universe is not a physical,
material world but a computer-generated simulation -- a
kind of virtual reality. This essay is a
condensation of the material presented in "The Reality
Program." Good place to start for an overview.

A Quantum Dialog
A Socratic examination of some basic quantum phenomena,
and the conclusions that can be drawn from the evidence.

"One obvious explanation for what
[physicist Eugene] Wigner calls 'the unreasonable
effectiveness of mathematics in the natural
sciences,'" suggests Svozil, "seems to be the
Pythagorean assumption that numbers are the elements
out of which the universe was constructed; and what
appears to us as the laws of Nature are just
mathematical theorems or computations."

Digital Physics and Me [pdf] [html]
This essay sets out the reasons I find Digital Physics
so appealing -- with its hypothesis that the universe is
a cellular automata computer simulation.